Ok, first off you can not BS your way through this...there are certain things about a Mac that one needs to know before trying to get into it..
Extensions, Drivers, Disk Cache settings, First Aid stuff(Norton's, Tech Tools, Disk Warrior), how things are laid out, problems that arise are not like a PC...error messages, corrupt files, preferences and general Mac know how!
I know this is something you want to get into but if you do not know what is truly going on you can mess up a system more so than help it! Seriously!
Learning how to trash preferences, zapping PRAM, starting with extensions off, starting from a different disc, deleting/unmounting discs...etc etc etc...
The different OS levels etc etc etc
there's more to it than knowing it's a Mac!!
Opus

opus,
good advice, I will make sure I don't misrepresent myself, that would not be good. Other than just getting a mac and messing around with it myself, is there anything else that I can do to start familiarizing myself with the os?

Ian

Here's how I learned...
At Sweetwater I had two extremely Mac-centric guru's spew forth their brain filled knowledge to me in a span of two weeks...they babbled on and on and showed me several aspects and tricks that gorged me brain with a ton of information...with that I started taking tech calls for Mac based problems....from there I learned what fixed what and what caused more problems..also being able to try out and configure a system with just about every interface and program helps as well!
You should see if there is someone around you that will take the time to hold your hand and show you this stuff...this is truly the way to learn! Seriously!
Good luck
Opus